International Population Assistance and Family Planning Programs: Issues for Congress Page: 4 of 21
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International Population Assistance
and Family Planning Programs:
Issues for Congress
U.S. Population Assistance Issues:
Setting the Context
Overview
Population assistance became a global issue in the late 1950s and early 1960s
after several private foundations, among them the International Planned Parenthood
Federation (IPPF), began providing money to developing countries to control high
population growth rates. In 1966, when global population growth rates were reaching
an historic annual high of 2.1%, the United Nations began to include population
technical assistance in its international development aid programs. Population
assistance grew rapidly over the next half-dozen years, with the United States, other
developed countries, and international organizations such as the World Bank, all
beginning to contribute funds. With passage of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961,
Congress first authorized research on international family planning and population
issues and, in 1965, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID)
launched a series of population and reproductive health programs. In 1968, Congress
specifically funded family planning aid activities and USAID began to purchase
contraceptives for distribution through its programs in the developing world.
The first International Population Conference was held in 1974, followed by the
second in Mexico City in 1984, and the third in Cairo in 1994.1 The attention and
funding given to international family planning programs are credited with helping to
decrease population growth in developing countries from about a 1.7% per year
average between 1980 and 2002, to a projected annual average of 1.2% between 2002
and 2015. Fertility rates have fallen in developing nations from 4.1 children per
woman in 1980 to 3.0 in 2005 (if China is excluded from this calculation, however,
the decline in fertility rates is less dramatic at 3.5 children in 2005). Nevertheless,
while global population growth has slowed, the world's population reached 6 billion
in 1999, 6.5 billion in 2005, and is expected to rise to 9.3 billion by 2050, with most
of the growth occurring in developing nations. In 1960, 70% of the world's'The conferences were coordinated by the United Nations. More information is available
at [http://www.un.org/esa/devagenda/population.html].
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International Population Assistance and Family Planning Programs: Issues for Congress, report, September 21, 2007; Washington D.C.. (https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc817963/m1/4/: accessed April 25, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, UNT Digital Library, https://digital.library.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.